• Choose the simplest format possible for your course delivery.  Synchronous delivery is seldom the simplest form.  It is almost always much easier to record in advance and post.
• Asynchronous gives you more control.  In an asynchronous format, you can pre-record your content, post it, and test that it is working properly.  If something goes wrong, you will likely have time to resolve the problem before your students access the content.  For that reason, you may wish to rely more heavily on asynchronous content and limit the synchronous elements, perhaps by using synchronous sessions only once a week, or for short mini-lectures or Q & A sessions.
• Get appropriate training on technology that our campus supports.  Synchronous technologies are not necessarily “hard” to use, but you do need to be familiar with them.  If you plan to use synchronous tools, and you have not done so already, please get training.  Check the OIT Events Page for upcoming events and the Campus Contingency Guide on the ITS knowledge base for documentation and recorded training sessions.  Be sure to use technologies our campus supports.  This will not only ensure that you can get the support that YOU need from OIT, but it will also reduce the number of platforms your students will have to learn and ensure that they have also access to campus support.
• Choice #1 for you is Bb Collaborate  (students can use for group work)
• Choice #2 for you is WebEx  (training video below)
• Use your regularly scheduled class session. It is essential that you schedule your synchronous class for its regularly scheduled class session.  Most students are enrolled in multiple courses.  If faculty do not keep to their regular class schedule, then students may have rescheduled synchronous sessions that overlap or conflict with one another.
• Be prepared for the likelihood that you or your students may encounter technical difficulties that disrupt or prevent the synchronous delivery.  The global move to online education is taxing broadband services.  Your own or your students’ internet connections may falter.  Some of your students may have limited internet access.  You or your students may have trouble using new technologies with which you are not familiar. 
• Test first.  Consider scheduling one or more “test” class sessions with your students where you have no intention of delivering content, but, rather, are giving everyone a chance to become familiar with whatever system you are using for your synchronous course.  Ask students for feedback on what challenges they experienced in the test sessions and then work to resolve those issues before holding a session involving the delivery of course content.
• Record for students who can’t access the synchronous session.  It is very important that you record your synchronous session for students who are unable to join the session.  Students may experience technical difficulties.  Students, like faculty, may be working from remote locations that are less than ideal.  Having a recording of the session will enable them to participate once their technical or other challenges have been resolved.  Knowing that the session will be recorded may alleviate anxiety they may experience over this type of remote learning.
• Have a back-up plan and make sure that you and your students know what the back-up plan is if you experience technical challenges that require you to abandon your original plan.
  • How will you communicate that you are moving to your back-up plan?  Will you post an announcement in Bb or send an email?
  • Will you move to a synchronous “chat” space where you and your students can type your communication?
  • Will you record the intended content and post it later that day?
  • Will you move to an alternate synchronous platform?
• Have an experienced colleague on stand-by to assist.  If you are inexperienced with synchronous technologies, you may want to consider asking an experienced colleague to be available to you by cell phone during your first foray into this learning environment.  That way you will have immediate access to someone who can help you troubleshoot any problems you or your students might be having.

• If you have problems:
• Check with the ITS Knowledge Base before sending in a ticket and use the search bar there to type your inquiry.  Your question may already be answered there.
• Try to resolve your problem within your department before reaching out to OIT.  Colleagues from your own discipline or from disciplines with similar pedagogical approaches are often well equipped to help you think about what works best with the sort of content you are delivering.
• OIT is training additional staff to assist with tickets, but OIT resources are heavily taxed right now.  So please recognize that there may be some delay before OIT staff can respond to your ticket.

• Instructional Technology has created a link with helpful information for students they will continue to update at:

  https://newpaltz.teamdynamix.com/TDClient/1905/Portal/KB/?CategoryID=17633

Resources for Remote Teaching:

“Quick Start Guide to Building Online Lessons” from the Provost:  https://newpaltz.teamdynamix.com/TDClient/1905/Portal/KB/ArticleDet?ID=100508

For support using various instructional platforms like Blackboard, including video help and training request forms, visit the “Campus Contingency Guide” at https://support.newpaltz.edu.  And for help with virtual conferencing tools like Blackboard Collaborate Ultra and Webex, follow this link:

https://newpaltz.teamdynamix.com/TDClient/1905/Portal/KB/?CategoryID=17236

For additional resources, please explore the following sites: Writing Discussion Forum Questions, Designing Effective Discussion Questions, and Questions to Provoke Critical Thinking .

For more ideas, please review Community Building Through Icebreaker Discussion Forums.

Association of American Colleges & Universities: “Safeguarding Quality, Equity, and Inclusion as Learning Moves Online” (due to COVID)

presentation slides:

Quality Online amid COVID 19 AAC & U Webinar

webinar recording:

Webinar: Safeguarding Quality, Equity, and Inclusion as Learning Moves Online

Remote Teaching in the Disciplines: Business and Accounting  —  https://sunyedu.workplace.com/groups/2926149804087039/

Remote Teaching in the Disciplines: Visual & Performing Arts  –

–  https://sunyedu.workplace.com/groups/577691076168814/

MAGNA offers free videos on online instruction.

MAGNA: Taking Your Teaching Online

Free 20 minute videos

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TEACHING EVALUATIONS Teaching Observation template Penn State

WORKING FROM HOME: article from the New York Times

Teaching philosophies FDC faculty orientation quotes

Digital Pedagogy in the Humanities. SUNY Center for Professional Development 9/25/2020 webinar: https://youtu.be/45jg-QAMq0s.

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Mark Rober on “Tricking Your Brain into Learning More”

What’s the right way to frame the learning process so you don’t concern yourself with failure?

Those who don’t see failure in a negative light saw more success and learned more.

Those penalized for failure (-5 points) ultimately 52% successful

Those not penalized for failure on an assignment/task ultimately  68% successful

Zone of Proximal Development by Lev Vygotsky

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A Daily Ritual That Builds Trust and Community Among Students

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Online teaching tools recommended by Prof. Josh Korenblat (Art/Graphic Design)

• Kahoot! for informal assessment and attendance. This is an online quiz that records student responses and creates a spreadsheet. I used this for informal assessment and for attendance, and it worked well. Educators can get Kahoot! for free.
• Slack for reading reflections, informal conversations, and exit tickets (one thing you learned today; one thing you’re struggling to understand). I used this tool to help replicate some of the informal conversations we would have in person and as a bridge between the weekly class meetings. It also helped me manage a volume of emails from the Designed World course, which has 53 students in two sections. For example, it’s much more like texting quick responses to students, which allows them to get frequent feedback. It worked well—too well! Slack can sometimes overwhelm as the text messages pile up.
• Notion for planning (educators can get Notion for free). Notion is like a combination of Google Docs and web publishing, but with a more expanded capability. I really like its flexibility. I also use it as a learning platform for my studio course, which is all about the process.
•  Wordpress blog: Graphic Design using a campus press system, but Hawksites does the same thing. Great for creating a hub for the course, and for student responses that everyone can see and comment on. This can also encourage students to think about publishing their work beyond the review of just the instructor, which means making their writing interesting, illustrated, well-sourced and cited, and posted with engaging headlines.
• Miro is a whiteboarding tool that can be used for free on its Educators Plan. I plan to use this a lot more in the future. It’s intuitive and my impression based on experience and student feedback is they love it. It could be a great replacement for the classroom whiteboard and for students collaborating visually.
• Google Forms for surveys and self-assessment. I could imagine students could respond to advice, reflection, and assessment questions here, and even do a self-assessment with the rubric criteria to pre-flight how they performed, as preparation for one-to-one meetings with the instructor. I’m seeing the power of checklists and surveys online. While I used this tool, I didn’t use it in-depth, but I plan to do so next semester to make grading more of a dialogue and a learning opportunity. With the email change, I’m wondering if Qualtrics surveys are better?Why use this tool: What if we could get a portrait of how the student thinks about their own learning from their responses and their own scoring according to rubric criteria, then do our own evaluation, and then meet with the student about how they either under-value or over-value their own work? Informally and with notable variations, I see evidence that in general, female students under-value their work while male students over-value their work.

Links

 

https://kahoot.com/

Kahoot! | Learning games | Make learning awesome! Kahoot! is a game-based learning platform that brings engagement and fun to 1+ billion players every year at school, at work, and at home. Sign up for free! kahoot.com

https://slack.com/

Notion – The all-in-one workspace for your notes, tasks, wikis, and databases. A new tool that blends your everyday work apps into one. It’s the all-in-one workspace for you and your team www.notion.so